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To build a biomedical waste transfer station Committee approves Decom proposal Whitby Town Coun- cil's administrative committee has given its blessing to a proposal that calls for the development of a biomedical waste tran- sfer station on Sunray St. in the Hopkins St./Consumers' Dr. in- dustrial park. At its meeting Mon- day night, the commit- tee approved an ap- plication by Decom Medical Waste Tran- sportation Systems Inc. to construct the 12,000 square foot facility without an Environmen- tal Assessment Hearing. In his report to the committee, planning director Bob Short said that the facility will not be a permanent storage or disposal site for biomedical waste but will be a facility where such waste can be tran- sferred from collection vehicles to tractor trailers which will then haul it to Decom's in- cinerator in Gatineau, Quebec. "The proposed location will be used as Decom's head office and storage facility as well as a transfer terminal where collection vehicles transfer their shipments to transport trailers," Short said. "The waste materials will be transported from the Whitby site to Decom's incineration facility in Gatineau, Quebec. "There will be no processing, disposai or storage of any waste at the Whitby transfer terminal," Short added. In a written presen- tation to the committee, Decom said that the materials they will collect are already in the community and originate in such places as doctors' offices, hospitals, nursing homes, medical laboratories and veterinary clinics. "They will consist of used bandages, hypodermic needles and syringes, spatulas and other disposable medical supplies, am-. putated limbs, expired drugs, test tubes and other containers con- taining test samples and the like," the company said. However, they also stressed that they -will not be bringing anything into Whitby that is not already here. "We will not handle any hazardous or toxic chemicals such as PCBs or the like," the com- pany said, "Our license from the Ministry of Environment will not include any such materials." Decom also promised that the waste will be collected in extra heavy guage yellow plastic bags which will be sealed and then placed in leak-proof containers supplied by the com- pany. These containers will be collected and hauled in refridgerated trucks and transfered directly into a tractor trailer. Only the collection vehicles, the company maintains, will be cleaned at the Whitby site. The tractor trailers, the containers and other on board equipment will be cleaned at the com- pany's Gatineau facility. In his presentation to the committee, Ivan Flaschner, a director of Decom, noted that neither the Dr. J.O. Ruddy General Hospital nor the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital use means such as his to dispose of their medical waste. Except for anatomical waste, which is taken to the Port Perry Community Hospital and in- cinerated, all other waste is disposed of through the landfill site, Flaschner said. He told the committee that once medical facilities in Whitby were aware of his company's unique and specialized service, they would be anxious to use Decom to dispose of their biomedical waste. Support for the Decom proposal also came from Dr. Hean Gray, the Medical Of- ficer of Health for Durham Region. She noted that Decom's method of medical waste disposal was a sharp im- provement over methods currently em- ployed. "Incineration is far better than landfill," shesaid. Alex Conner, of the Durham Region Health Unit's inspection branch assured the committee that the site would be in- CONT'D ON R.1 Vol. 15, No. 25 Wednesday, June 19, 1985 28 Pages Twinning visit a complete success "Le 17eme Anne de jumelage" with Longueuil Quebec was celebrated In Whitby last weekend. Some 65 residents of the Montreal suburb came to Whitby to continue a friendship that was started in 1967 when Whitby resident Benny LaHaye led a crew of Voyageur scouts on a canoe trip from Midland to Longueuil. That Centennial project resulted in the formal twinning of Whitby and Longueuil two years later. In the photo above, members of both the Whitby and Longueuil twinning committees look over the Whitby scrapbook that chronicles the history of the social-cultural exchanges. in fact, the page shown here includes the formal declarations by both Longueuil and Whitby councils to enter the twinning program., Seated are Lucille Roy, president of the Association Social-Culturell du Longueuil and Reg. Coun. Tom Edwards, chairman of the Whitby Twin- ning Committee. Looking on are town administrator Bill Wallace and Jeanine and Theo Picard, all of whom are long time participants in the twinning program. For more details on this weekend's activities, see story on page 10. Free Press Staff Photo Korea veterans honored Soldiers and former soldiers gathered in Whitby Sunday afternoon and marched to the cenotaph where they held a ceremony to fur- ther dedicate the local memorial - this time to those who fought and died in the Korean War from 1949 to 1953. Members of Whitby branch (112) of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Oshawa unit of the Korea Veterans' Association, the Ajax branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and members of the local Polish Veterans' Association took part in the parade. In his address to the parade, Don Randall (above), president of the Ontario Region of the Korea Veterans' Association praised Whitby for including his comrades on the cenotaph. Randall said that such recognition of those Canadian servicemen was long overdue. For more details, see story on page 3. Free Press Staff Photo je ýE 'E p11-.7t 1